A few bad apples causing problems in your GLO
 

Hi everyone, I have recently been in contact with a woman in a particular National GLO. She is at a loss of what to do with her organization. There are a few "dominant" sisters who are doing a lot of really BAD things bringing shame to the sorority (ie. hazing, public sex acts, underage drinking) and basically from what I understand, if anyone goes against these ladies, they are more or less shunned from the organization. What would you all do in this situation? It seems like one of those things that if you go to National and talk about what is going on you could put the organization at risk, and if you don't, the organization is still at risk. Fortunately, I've never been in this kind of situation and if I were still in undergrad faced with this dilemma, I don't know what I would do either. I'm not sure even what D*Phi*E does in this situation, can you report the "bad apples" to National? Just curious, because I always wonder what would happen in a situation like this.

If the "bad apples" are not in leadership positions within the sorority, they could be brought to the sorority's standards board to answer for their actions.

If they are in leadership positions, it might be time to have a word with the chapter's advisor. Skip standards - they won't punish "one of their own".

Oh, I think I forgot to put that in my post. I believe she has tried to involve the advisor and she (the advisor) hasn't done anything and it is like you said, those on the "standards board" don't want to go against these girls.

Not being of NPC, I'm not exactly an expert here. However, I have heard of HQ's coming in and "cleaning house". It happened when I was an undergrad to one of the national sororities on campus.

I hate even posting about this kind of stuff because I think it makes all GLO's look bad.

Which, unfortunately, may be what needs to happen. As was pointed out, the chapter is at risk one way or the other.

Somebody needs to go to their Nationals.

Hmm... if the advisor hasn't done anything, it might be time to escalate the issue. The risk here is that nationals may decide that the only answer is a reorganization. Reorgs are very traumatic. I saw it happen to my chapter (I was an alum but I was still around for grad school) and IMHO, the chapter lost some of the good along with the bad. (Those who were not kept on as actives were offered alum status, not expelled. The chapter also lost a few good people who chose to deaffiliate.)

Hope everything works out.

Yeah, that was what I was thinking. As I stated earlier, fortunately nothing like this ever happened in my chapter and I never held a position where I would be the immediate person to have to make a decision like this, which I think is what is causing this young woman difficulty. I suspect she may be President. In any event, I know there have been a lot of changes in the way Nationals (all of them) are run since I graduated (1998) and lots of new rules so I don't know if they for the most part come in and say "Okay we will give you 3 months to clean up your act" or if they have to immediately "clean house" based on how bad things are. I've also spoken to people in various organizations that are affiliated with the national office and they say the sad thing about these situations and potential chapter closings is that often the chapter comes to them and it is way too late to do anything. If members went to them in the very beginning when a problem was building, the organization could have been saved but often members succomb to peer pressure and don't say anything until it is too late.

If she has gone to the chapter advisor and gotten nowhere, then she definitely needs to go another level up. But, she also has to have good documentation, others who will back up her allegations and any/all proof she can get ahold of. A reorganization and "cleaning house" are not always the same thing. I've seen chapters have to "clean house" and go on to be very successful. She needs to keep going up the organizational chain.

Dee

While this person may not want to go to "nationals", if these women can't work out their issues with either their standards board procedures or with advisory board intervention, then it's high time to contact HQs. I don't know what would happen, but to let a chapter of an organization besmirch the good name of any national sorority is unacceptable in my opinion.

If it's a school with a very active Greek system, the national will probably reorganize the chapter. If it's a school where Greek life is struggling, the national will probably say "we don't need this s@$%" and close the chapter completely. At least that's the pattern I've seen.

I'm imagining all kinds of things for "public sex acts" (and some of them involve farm animals, LOL) Quite frankly I don't understand why anyone would want to be in a sorority where all that is condoned. And I'm inclined to question the national's values as well as it seems the advisor they approved doesn't seem to want to do anything to correct it.

Sounds like this chapter has some risk management issues as well (hazing and drinking for sure....depends on what the sex acts are though :p ). There's two things that can happen. Either this person can contact the sister above the adviser in the organizational chain (for us that would be like a District President) or someone will wind up dead in a hazing or drinking activity. You tell me which one would be easier to deal with.

As far as what the national organization would do....it really depends on the situation, what has actually occured, and what plans they have for that chapter. I'm slightly surprised that the Greek Adviser on that campus hasn't said anything to someone from that org....the way you describe it doesn't make it sound very discreet.

PsychTau

That's your first mistake. Then again I always think that orgs which have letters on shot glasses make all GLO's look bad.

Such a very sad day.

P.S. I'm buzzin' something hard right now.

Just an idea-if:
1) these individual members are consistantly making poor choices, especially publically,
2) Advisors/standards board/etc aren't putting a stop to it
then what would happen if
The offenders were caught in the act on tape/photo
and if THAT was what was sent to the advisory board/HQ in lieu of setting up a "they said, but they said" conflict.
If that doesn't work, perhaps write up a mock newspaper as if a real one where they brought shame to greeks everywhere, then distribute to all greek houses anonymously and see how the GLOs on campus feel about this small group after that.

Unfortunately we don't have to catch them... they enjoy taping themselves so that they can sit around and congradulate each other afterwards...

It's hard to combat moral or ethical decay in a group when the cliche that is often guilty is the "popular" guys... you have to then work on turning around the culture of the whole, which is more often than not easier said than done.